The Bakry-Emery tensor gives an analog of the Ricci tensor for a Riemannian manifold with a smooth measure. We show that some of the topological consequences of having a positive or nonnegative Ricci tensor are also valid for the Bakry-Emery tensor. We show that the Bakry-Emery tensor is nondecreasing under a Riemannian submersion whose fiber transport preserves measures up to constants. We give some relations between the Bakry-Emery tensor and measured Gromov-Hausdorff limits.
In this article, we prove gradient estimates under Bakry-Emery curvature bounds for unbounded graph Laplacians which satisfy an ellipticity assumption. As applications, we study completeness and finiteness of stochastically complete graphs under Bakry-Emery curvature bounds.
In this paper, we study stable weighted minimal hypersurfaces in manifolds with nonnegative Bakry-Emery Ricci curvature. We will give some geometric and topological applications. In particular, we give some partial classification of complete 3-manifolds with nonnegative Bakry-Emery Ricci curvature assuming that $f$ is bounded.
In this paper we study some splitting properties on complete noncompact manifolds with smooth measures when $\infty$-dimensional Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature is bounded from below by some negative constant and spectrum of the weighted Laplacian has a positive lower bound. These results extend the cases of Ricci curvature and $m$-dimensional Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature.
We prove a Bakry-Émery generalization of a theorem of Petersen and Wilhelm, itself a generalization of a theorem of Frankel, that closed minimal hypersurfaces in a complete manifold with a suitable curvature bound must intersect. We then prove splitting theorems of Croke-Kleiner type for manifolds bounded by hypersurfaces obeying Bakry-Émery curvature bounds. Motivated in part by the near-horizon geometry programme of general relativity, we do not assume that the Bakry-Émery vector field is of gradient type.
In this paper, we prove the extensions of Bonnet--Myers' type theorems obtained by Calabi and Cheeger--Gromov--Taylor via Bakry--Emery Ricci curvature, which generalize the results of \cite{FG, Lim1, Wan, Wang, WW, Wu}.
For Riemannian manifolds with a smooth measure $(M, g, e^{-f}dv_{g})$, we prove a generalized Myers compactness theorem when Bakry--Emery Ricci tensor is bounded from below and $f$ is bounded.
Motivated and inspired by the recent work of Colding [5] and Colding-Minicozzi [6] we derive several families of monotonicity formulas for manifolds with nonnegative Bakry-Emery Ricci curvature, extending the formulas in [5, 6].
In this paper, motivated by the work of Qi S. Zhang in [28], we derive Li-Yau gradient bounds for positive solutions of the f-heat equation on closed manifolds with Bakry-Emery Ricci curvature bounded below.
In this paper, we generalize topological results known for noncompact manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature to spaces with nonnegative $N$-Bakry Émery Ricci curvature. We study the Splitting Theorem and a property called the geodesic loops to infinity property in relation to spaces with nonnegative $N$-Bakry Émery Ricci Curvature. In addition, we show that if $M^n$ is a complete, noncompact Riemannian manifold with nonnegative $N$-Bakry Émery Ricci curvature where $N>n$, then $H_{n-1}(M,\mathbb{Z})$ is $0$.
In this paper, we first prove the $f$-mean curvature comparison in a smooth metric measure space when the Bakry-Emery Ricci tensor is bounded from below and $|f|$ is bounded. Based on this, we define a Myers-type compactness theorem by generalizing the results of Cheeger, Gromov, and Taylor and of Wan for the Bakry-Emery Ricci tensor. Moreover, we improve a result from Soylu by using a weaker condition on a derivative $f'(t)$.
For $n$-dimensional weighted Riemannian manifolds, lower $m$-Bakry-Émery-Ricci curvature bounds with $\varepsilon$-range, introduced by Lu-Minguzzi-Ohta, integrate constant lower bounds and certain variable lower bounds in terms of weight functions. In this paper, we prove a Cheng type inequality and a local Sobolev inequality under lower $m$-Bakry-Émery-Ricci curvature bounds with $\varepsilon$-range. These generalize those inequalities under constant curvature bounds for $m \in (n,\infty)$ to $m\in(-\infty,1]\cup\{\infty\}$.
In this paper we prove mean curvature comparisons and volume comparisons on a smooth metric measure space when the integral radial Bakry-Émery Ricci tensor and the potential function or its gradient are bounded. As applications, we prove diameter estimates and eigenvalue estimates on smooth metric measure spaces. These results not only give a supplement of the author's previous results under integral Bakry-Émery Ricci tensor bounds, but also are generalizations of the Wei-Wylie's pointwise results.
In this paper we prove that on a complete smooth metric measure space with non-negative Bakry-Émery-Ricci curvature if the space of weighted L^2 harmonic one-forms is non-trivial then the weighted volume of the manifold is finite and universal cover of the manifold splits isometrically as the product of the real line with an hypersurface.
We prove mean curvature and volume comparison estimates on smooth metric measure spaces when their integral Bakry-Émery Ricci tensor bounds, extending Wei-Wylie's comparison results to the integral case. We also apply comparison results to get diameter estimates, eigenvalue estimates and volume growth estimates on smooth metric measure spaces with their normalized integral smallness for Bakry-Émery Ricci tensor. These give generalizations of some work of Petersen-Wei, Aubry, Petersen-Sprouse, Yau and more.
We prove distance bounds for graphs possessing positive Bakry-Émery curvature apart from an exceptional set, where the curvature is allowed to be non-positive. If the set of non-positively curved vertices is finite, then the graph admits an explicit upper bound for the diameter. Otherwise, the graph is a subset of the tubular neighborhood with an explicit radius around the non-positively curved vertices. Those results seem to be the first assuming non-constant Bakry-Émery curvature assumptions on graphs.
On closed Riemannian manifolds with Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature bounded from below and bounded gradient of the potential function, we obtain lower bounds for all positive eigenvalues of the Beltrami-Laplacian instead of the drifted Laplacian. The lower bound of the $k$th eigenvalue depends on $k$, Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature lower bound, the gradient bound of the potential function, and the dimension and diameter upper bound of the manifold, but the volume of the manifold is not involved. Especially, these results apply to closed manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded from below.
We first extend Cheeger-Colding Almost Splitting Theorem to smooth metric measure spaces. Arguments utilizing this extension of the Almost Splitting Theorem show that if a smooth metric measure space has almost nonnegative Bakry-Emery Ricci curvature and a lower bound on volume, then its fundamental group is almost abelian. Second, if the smooth metric measure space has Bakry-Emery Ricci curvature bounded from below then the number of generators of the fundamental group is uniformly bounded. These results are extensions of theorems which hold for Riemannian manifolds with Ricci curvature bound…
In this paper we prove a new Myers' type diameter estimate on a complete connected Reimannian manifold which admits a bounded vector field such that the Bakry-Émery Ricci tensor has a positive lower bound. The result is sharper than previous Myers' type results. The proof uses the generalized mean curvature comparison applied to the excess function instead of the classical second variation of geodesics.
We consider the Hawking-Penrose singularity theorems and the Lorentzian splitting theorem under the weaker curvature condition of nonnegative Bakry-Emery-Ricci curvature $Ric_f^m$ in timelike directions. We prove that they still hold when $m$ is finite, and when $m$ is infinite, they hold under the additional assumption that $f$ is bounded from above.
In this paper, we prove a Laplacian comparison theorem for non-symmetric diffusion operator on complete smooth $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold having a lower bound of modified $m$-Bakry-Émery Ricci tensor under $m\leq 1$ in terms of vector fields. As consequences, we give the optimal conditions for modified $m$-Bakry-Émery Ricci tensor under $m\leq1$ such that the (weighted) Myers' theorem, Bishop-Gromov volume comparison theorem, Ambrose-Myers' theorem, Cheng's maximal diameter theorem, and the Cheeger-Gromoll type splitting theorem hold. Some of these results were well-studied for $m$-Ba…
In this paper, we first prove a compactness theorem for the space of closed embedded $f$-minimal surfaces of fixed topology in a closed three-manifold with positive Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature. Then we give a Lichnerowicz type lower bound of the first eigenvalue of the $f$-Laplacian on compact manifold with positive $m$-Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature, and prove that the lower bound is achieved only if the manifold is isometric to the $n$-shpere, or the $n$-dimensional hemisphere. Finally, for compact manifold with positive $m$-Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature and $f$-mean convex boundary, we prove an …
We prove diameter bounds for graphs having positive Ricci-curvature bound in Bakry-Emery sense. One result using only curvature and maximal vertex degree is sharp in case of hypercubes. The other result depends on an additional dimension bound, but is independent of the vertex degree. In particular, the second result is the first Bonnet-Myers type theorem for unbounded graph Laplacians. Moreover, our results improve diameter bounds from [6] and [10].
We compute first variation formulas for the complex components of the Bakry-Emery-Ricci endomorphism along Kähler structures. Our formulas show that the principal parts of the variations are quite standard complex differential operators with particular symmetry properties on the complex decomposition of the variation of the Kähler metric. We show as application that the Soliton-Kähler-Ricci flow generated by the Soliton-Ricci flow represents a complex strictly parabolic system of the complex components of the variation of the Kähler metric.
For Riemannian manifolds with a measure $(M,g, e^{-f} dvol_g)$ we prove mean curvature and volume comparison results when the $\infty$-Bakry-Emery Ricci tensor is bounded from below and $f$ is bounded or $\partial_r f$ is bounded from below, generalizing the classical ones (i.e. when $f$ is constant). This leads to extensions of many theorems for Ricci curvature bounded below to the Bakry-Emery Ricci tensor. In particular, we give extensions of all of the major comparison theorems when $f$ is bounded. Simple examples show the bound on $f$ is necessary for these results.
We give rigidity results for the discrete Bonnet-Myers diameter bound and the Lichnerowicz eigenvalue estimate. Both inequalities are sharp if and only if the underlying graph is a hypercube. The proofs use well-known semigroup methods as well as new direct methods which translate curvature to combinatorial properties. Our results can be seen as first known discrete analogues of Cheng's and Obata's rigidity theorems.
We investigate analytic and geometric implications of non-constant Ricci curvature bounds. We prove a Lichnerowicz eigenvalue estimate and finiteness of the fundamental group assuming that $L+2 Ric$ is a positive operator where $L$ is the graph Laplacian. Assuming that the negative part of the Ricci curvature is small in Kato sense, we prove diameter bounds, elliptic Harnack inequality and Buser inequality. This article seems to be the first one establishing these results while allowing for some negative curvature.
We establish a lower bound for the real eigenvalues of a Laplace-Beltrami operator with an $L^\infty$-drift term. We make no assumptions that the operator is self-adjoint or that the drift has any additional regularity. In the case where the operator is self-adjoint, this establishes a lower bound on the spectrum without assuming a lower bound for the Bakry-Emery Ricci tensor. Put colloquially, this result states that no matter which way the wind blows, heat will diffuse at a definite rate depending only on the geometry of the underlying space and the maximal wind speed.
In this paper we derive Cheng-Yau, Li-Yau, Hamilton estimates for Riemannian manifolds with Bakry-Emery Ricci curvature bounded from below, and also global and local upper bounds, in terms of Bakry-Emery Ricci curvature, for the Hessian of positive and bounded solutions of the weighted heat equation on a closed Riemannian manifold.
In this paper, we explore the limit structure of a sequence of Riemannian manifolds with Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature bounded below in the Gromov-Hausdorff topology. By extending the techniques established by Cheeger-Cloding for Riemannian manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded below, we prove that each tangent space at a point of the limit space is a metric cone. We also analyze the singular structure of the limit space analogous to a work of Cheeger-Colding-Tian. Our results will be applied to study the limit space of a sequence of Kähler metrics arising from solutions of certain complex Mong…
In this paper, we shall give a new upper diameter estimate for complete Riemannian manifolds in the case that the Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature has a positive lower bound and the norm of the potential function has an upper bound. Our diameter estimate improves previous ones obtained by Wei and Wylie (J. Differential Geom. 83, 377--405, 2009) and Limoncu (Math. Z. 271, 715--722, 2012). As an application, we shall give an upper diameter bound for compact Ricci solitons in terms of the maximum value of the scalar curvature. By using such a diameter bound, we shall provide some new sufficient condit…
In this paper, we prove two generalized versions of the Cheeger-Gromoll splitting theorem via the non-negativity of the Bakry-Émery Ricci curavture on complete Riemannian manifolds.
We prove a comparison theorem on the first Neumann eigenvalue on Bakry-Emery manifolds. Examples are constructed to illustrate the sharpness of the result. A linear explicit lower bound is also proved. We also discuss the asymptotic sharpness of such a result.
Inspired by Hongjie Dong and Qi S. Zhang's article \cite{ZQ2}, we find that the analyticity in time for a smooth solution of the heat equation with exponential quadratic growth in the space variable can be extended to any complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds with Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature bounded below and the potential function being of at most quadratic growth. Therefore, our result holds on all gradient Ricci solitons. As a corollary, we give a necessary and sufficient condition on the solvability of the backward heat equation in a class of functions with the similar growth condition.…
In this paper, we will present some characterizations for the upper bound of the Bakry-Emery curvature on a Riemannian manifold by using functional inequalities on path space. Moreover, some characterizations for general lower and upper bounds of Ricci curvature are also given, which extends the recent results derived by Naber \cite{N} and Wang-Wu\cite{WW}.
In this paper we obtain a splitting theorem for the symmetric diffusion operator $Δ_ϕ=Δ-\left<\nablaϕ,\nabla \right>$ and a non-constant $C^3$ function $f$ in a complete Riemannian manifold $M$, under the assumptions that the Ricci curvature associated with $Δ_ϕ$ satisfies ${\rm Ric}_ϕ(\nabla f,\nabla f)\ge 0$, that $|\nabla f|$ attains a maximum at $M$ and that $Δ_ϕ$ is non-decreasing along the orbits of $\nabla f$. The proof uses the general fact that a complete manifold $M$ with a non-constant smooth function $f$ with parallel gradient vector field must be a Riemannian product $M=N\times \m…
Scalar-tensor gravitation theories, such as the Brans-Dicke family of theories, are commonly partly described by a modified Einstein equation in which the Ricci tensor is replaced by the Bakry-Émery-Ricci tensor of a Lorentzian metric and scalar field. In physics this formulation is sometimes referred to as the "Jordan frame". Just as, in General Relativity, natural energy conditions on the stress-energy tensor become conditions on the Ricci tensor, in scalar-tensor theories expressed in the Jordan frame natural energy conditions become conditions on the Bakry-Émery-Ricci tensor. We show that,…
We define the orthogonal Bakry-Émery tensor as a generalization of the orthogonal Ricci curvature, and then study diameter theorems on Kähler and quaternionic Kähler manifolds under positivity assumption on the orthogonal Bakry-Émery tensor. Moreover, under such assumptions on the orthogonal Bakry-Émery tensor and the holomorphic or quaternionic sectional curvature on a Kähler manifold or a quaternionic Kähler manifold respectively, the Bonnet-Myers type diameter bounds are sharper than in the Riemannian case.
In this note, by extending the arguments of Ling (Illinois J. Math. 51, 853-860, 2007) to Bakry-Emery geometry, we shall give lower bounds for the first nonzero eigenvalue of the Witten-Laplacian on compact Bakry-Emery manifolds in the case that the Bakry-Emery Ricci curvature has some negative lower bounds and the manifold has the symmetry that the minimum of the first eigenfunction is the negative of the maximum. Our estimate is optimal among those obtained by a self-contained method.
In this short note, we give a sufficient condition for almost smooth compact metric measure spaces to satisfy the Bakry-Émery condition $BE (K, N)$. The sufficient condition is satisfied for the glued space of any two (not necessary same dimensional) closed pointed Riemannian manifolds at their base points. This tells us that the $BE$ condition is strictly weaker than the $RCD$ condition even in this setting, and that the local dimension is not constant even if the space satisfies the $BE$ condition with the coincidence between the induced distance by the Cheeger energy and the original distan…
This article is a brief presentation of results surrounding the fundamental gap. We begin by recalling Bakry-Emery geometry and demonstrate connections between eigenvalues of the Laplacian with the Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. We then show a connection between the fundamental gap and Bakry-Emery geometry, concluding with a presentation of the key ideas in Andrews's and Clutterbuck's proof of the fundamental gap conjecture. We conclude with a presentation of results for the fundamental gap of triangles and simplices.
We demonstrate lower bounds for the eigenvalues of compact Bakry-Emery manifolds with and without boundary. The lower bounds for the first eigenvalue rely on a generalised maximum principle which allows gradient estimates in the Riemannian setting to be directly applied to the Bakry-Emery setting. Lower bounds for all eigenvalues are demonstrated using heat kernel estimates and a suitable Sobolev inequality.
Let $L=Δ-\nablaφ\cdot\nabla$ be a symmetric diffusion operator with an invariant measure $dμ=e^{-φ}dx$ on a complete Riemannian manifold. In this paper we prove Li-Yau gradient estimates for weighted elliptic equations on the complete manifold with $|\nabla φ|\leqθ$ and $\infty$-dimensional Bakry-Émery Ricci curvature bounded below by some negative constant. Based on this, we give an upper bound on the first eigenvalue of the diffusion operator $L$ on this kind manifold, and thereby generalize a Cheng's result on the Laplacian case (Math. Z., 143 (1975) 289-297).
We prove comparison theorems for the sub-Riemannian distortion coefficients appearing in interpolation inequalities. These results, which are equivalent to a sub-Laplacian comparison theorem for the sub-Riemannian distance, are obtained by introducing a suitable notion of sub-Riemannian Bakry-Émery curvature. The model spaces for comparison are variational problems coming from optimal control theory. As an application we establish the sharp measure contraction property for 3-Sasakian manifolds satisfying a suitable curvature bound.
In this survey, we study three different notions of curvature that are defined on graphs, namely, combinatorial curvature, Bakry-Émery curvature, and Ollivier's Ricci curvature. For each curvature notion, the definition and its motivation from Riemannian geometry will be explained. Moreover, we bring together some global results and geometric concepts in Riemannian geometry that are related to curvature (e.g. Bonnet-Myers theorem, Laplacian operator, Lichnerowicz theorem, Cheeger constant), and then compare them to the discrete analogues in some (if not all) of the discrete curvature notions. …
New lower bounds of the first nonzero eigenvalue of the weighted $p$-Laplacian are established on compact smooth metric measure spaces with or without boundaries. Under the assumption of positive lower bound for the $m$-Bakry--Émery Ricci curvature, the Escober--Lichnerowicz--Reilly type estimates are proved; under the assumption of nonnegative $\infty$-Bakry--Émery Ricci curvature and the $m$-Bakry--Émery Ricci curvature bounded from below by a non-positive constant, the Li--Yau type lower bound estimates are given. The weighted $p$-Bochner formula and the weighted $p$-Reilly formula are deri…
The Bakry-Emery generalized Ricci tensor arises in scalar-tensor gravitation theories in the conformal gauge known as the Jordan frame. Recent results from the mathematics literature show that standard singularity and splitting theorems that hold when an energy condition is applied in general relativity also hold when that energy condition is applied to the Bakry-Emery tensor. We show here that a direct consequence is that the Hawking-Penrose singularity theorem and the timelike splitting theorem hold for scalar-tensor theory in the Jordan frame. As examples, we consider dilaton gravity (inclu…
